Russian scholar and communal
worker; born in Wilna about 1760; died in Hebron, Palestine, after 1838.
He was shammash of the community in his native town and was in his younger
days one of the followers of Elijah Gaon. Later he joined the ?asidim,
but did not participate in the bitter controversies concerning them which
disturbed the Polish Jewry in those times. He was a great admirer of Moses
Mendelssohn and approved Solomon Dubno's bi'ur of Genesis (1783). There
is also an approbation by Meisel of Samuel Gershoni's "Debar Shemuel"
(Byelostok, 1814). He left Wilna for Palestine in 1813 and settled in
Hebron. Dr. Löwe, who met him there in the summer of 1838, describes
him as an old man well acquainted with German literature.
Meisel was the author of "Shirat Mosheh" (Shklov, 1788), a poem
on the 613 precepts, each line beginning with a letter from the Ten Commandments.
His son Aryeh Löb (d. 1835) was a leader among the ?sidim of Wilna.
Bibliography: Fuenn, ?iryah Ne'emanah, pp. 246-247, 288, Wilna, 1860;
M. A. Ginzburg, Debir, pp. 47-48, Warsaw, 1883.H. R. P. Wi.
Samuel Meisel (the elder):

Nephew of Mordecai Marcus b.
Samuel; born in 1585; died in 1630. He was wealthy and prominent in affairs.
In 1616 he received an imperial privilege. The printing-press of Abraham
Heide (Lemberger) was situated in his house. After Mordecai Meisel's death
the settlement of his estate involved his family in a tedious suit with
the government, and from the records of this suit is derived the information
regarding the members of this family. One of the houses belonging to the
estate was awarded, in 1610, to a nephew, Jacob, and his wife, Johanka;
and three years later, King Matthias, successor of Rudolf II., gave the
remaining real estate to another nephew, Samuel Meisel (the younger; d.
1625), son of Simon. The Meisel synagogue and other property were awarded
to the Jewish community. As the state had confiscated all the money (more
than 500,000 gulden) and most of the real estate, the family sued the
community for the income from the synagogue, the baths, institutional
buildings, etc., amounting to 800 florins a year. The rabbinate thereupon
excommunicated the entirely impoverished family (c. 1670), and this led
to indescribable persecutions and scandals. Decent burial was refused
to Marek, son of the younger Samuel Meisel, in 1674, and the funeral cortège
was insulted. His daughter was attacked in her house by the mob, and the
family had to pay large sums in order to secure honorable burial for the
heir Joachim Meisel. It did not appear until the final verdict rendered
in this suit by the magistrate of Prague Sept. 13, 1684, that through
the machinations of the notorious apostate Philipp Lang, chamberlain to
the emperor until 1608, the record of Meisel's privileges had been secretly
stricken from the official register in 1601, on the ground of their having
been obtained by fraud, and that the sums subsequently paid to the widow
and to the heirs, and the two houses given them, were alleged to have
been merely gifts. The heirs, naturally, were not satisfied with this
decision; but the great fire in the ghetto of Prague, in 1689, which destroyed
the Meisel synagogue and the other buildings of the estate, terminated
the controversy. The family flourished at Prague down to modern times;
and branches of it are found at Warsaw, Budapest, Breslau, and Berlin.
Bibliography: A. Kisch, Das Testament Mardochai Meysels;
Lieben, Gal 'Ed;
Benedikt Foges, Altertümer der Prager Josefstadt.D. A. Ki.
Wolf Alois Meisel:

Hungarian rabbi; born at Roth-Janowitz
July 16, 1815; died at Budapest Nov. 30, 1867. Owing to his father's conversion
to Christianity, the family relations were so inharmonious that he reached
the age of seventeen before he was able to begin definite preparation
for the future. In 1832 he went to Hamburg, where he applied himself to
the study of the Talmud and graduatedfrom the gymnasium. He entered the
University of Breslau in 1838, where he continued his study of the Talmud
and attended lectures on rhetoric. In 1848 he was called to the rabbinate
of Stettin, and on May 11, 1859, to that of Budapest. Here he was in constant
conflict with his congregation owing to the state of transition, both
in religion and in politics, through which the Hungarian Jews passed during
his administration. His "Homilien über die Sprüche der
Väter" (Stettin, 1851; Hungarian transl. by Bauer Márkfi
Lörincz, Budapest, 1862) are models of Jewish pulpit-literature.
His "Prinz und Derwisch," poems (Stettin, 1847; 2d ed., Budapest,
1860), and "Der Prüfstein," poems (published posthumously
by the Meisel-Wohlthätigkeitsverein, Budapest, 1878), are translations.
He died suddenly while preaching a sermon, which Simon Bacher and his
son Wilhelm Bacher published in German and Hebrew under the title "Die
Brunnen Isaak's" (ib. 1867).
Bibliography: Kayserling, W. A. Meisel;
ein Lebens- und Zeitbild, Leipsic, 1891;
Venetianer, A Zsidóság Szervezete, pp. 496 et seq.;
Büchler, A Zsidók Torténete, pp. 479 et seq.;
Pallas Lex.;
Hochmuth, Leopold Löw, pp. 208 et seq., Leipsic, 1871.S. L. V.
MEISEL: (print this article)

By : Gotthard Deutsch Alexander Kisch Joseph Jacobs M. Seligsohn Herman
Rosenthal Peter Wiernik Isidore Singer Ludwig Venetianer
ARTICLE HEADINGS:
Frummet Meisel:
Judah Löb ben Sim?ah Bonim Meisel:
Mordecai Marcus Meisel (Mi_ka Marek in Bohemian documents):
His Benefactions.
Moses b. Mordecai Meisel:
Samuel Meisel (the elder):
Wolf Alois Meisel:
Bohemian family which became famous chiefly through Mordecai Marcus b.
Samuel Meisel, "primate" of Prague. The family seems to have
come originally from Cracow, to whose community Mordecai Meisel bequeathed
large sums for charitable purposes; and there, toward the end of the sixteenth
century, the printer Menahem Nahum b. Moses Meisel flourished. As early
as 1477, however, the name of "Meisel" is mentioned in documents
relating to Prague (Lieben, "Gal 'Ed," p. 15).Frummet Meisel:
Second wife of Mordecai Meisel; died Sheba? 23, 1625. She contributed
with her husband to the building of the Meisel synagogue, and some of
the gifts which they presented on the occasion of its dedication (see
Mordecai Marcus Meisel) are still exhibited on the anniversary of her
death. On her tombstone she is described as a woman distinguished for
piety and morality. It is furthermore stated that every synagogue of Prague
possessed votive offerings of hers, the most noteworthy gift being a golden
cup weighing 100 crowns; that she supported scholars liberally; and that
she was hospitable and very philanthropic. David Gans likewise praised
her noble character and her fidelity to her husband. It seems strange,
then, to read in the "'Eme? ha-Baka" (ed. Wiener, p. 141), that
she objected so strongly to the last will and testament of Mordecai Meisel
that he divorced her while helay dying. Although this statement has been
often questioned, there must be some truth in it, for on her gravestone
she is designated as the daughter of the famous elder Isaac Rofe (Lékarz),
not as Meisel's wife.
Bibliography: Foges, Altertümer der Prager Josefstadt, Prague, 1882;
Lieben, Gal 'Ed, ib. 1856;
A. Kisch, Das Testament Mardochai Meysels, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1893.D.
A. Ki.Judah Löb ben Sim?ah Bonim Meisel: Printer and author at Cracow
in the seventeenth century. Meisel reopened, in 1663, the printing establishment
of his father-in-law, Nahum Meisel, and continued it until 1670. The first
work printed by him was Jacob Weil's "She?i?ot u-Bedi?ot"; the
last one, the Eben ha-'Ezer and ?oshen ha-Mishpa? of the Shul?an 'Aruk.
Meisel was the author of a work entitled "?a'ame ha-Massoret,"
a commentary on the Masorah, at the end of which there are some novellæ
on the Talmud (Amsterdam, 1728).
Bibliography: Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 1373, 2986;
M. Zunz, 'Ir ha-?ede?, Supplement, p. 34, note.J. M. Sel.Mordecai Marcus
Meisel (Mi_ka Marek in Bohemian documents): Philanthropist and communal
leader at Prague; son of Samuel Meisel; born at Prague 1528; died there
March 13, 1601. The persecution of the Jews of Prague by the fanatical
Ferdinand I. occurred while Mordecai was a youth. In 1542 and 1561 his
family, with the other Jewish inhabitants, was forced to leave the city,
though only for a time. The source of the great wealth which subsequently
enabled him to become the benefactor of his coreligionists and to aid
the Austrian imperial house, especially during the Turkish wars, is unknown.
He is mentioned in documents for the first time in 1569, as having business
relations with the communal director Isaac Rofe (Lékarz), subsequently
his father-in-law. His first wife, Eva, who died before 1580, built with
him the Jewish town-hall at Prague, which is still standing, as well as
the neighboring Hohe Synagoge, where the Jewish court sat. With his second
wife, Frummet, he built (1590-92) the Meisel synagogue, which was much
admired by the Jews of the time, being, next to the Altneusynagoge, the
metropolitan synagogue of the city; it still bears his name. The costly
golden and silver vessels with which he and his wife furnished this building
either were lost during the lawsuit over his estate or were burned during
the conflagrations in the ghetto in 1689 (June 21) and 1754 (May 16).
The only gifts dedicated by Meisel and his wife to this synagogue that
have been preserved are a curtain ("paroket") embroidered with
hundreds of pearls, a similarly adorned wrapper for the scroll of the
Law, and a magnificent bronze ornament for the almemar. Jacob Segre, rabbi
of Casale-Monferrato, celebrated the dedication of the synagogue in a
poem which is still extant, and his contemporary David Gans, the chronicler
of Prague, has described in his "?ema? Dawid" the enthusiasm
with which the Jewish population received the gift.
(see image) Tombstone of Mordecai Meisel at Prague.(From Jerabék,
"Der Alte Prager Judenfriedhof.")His Benefactions.Meisel enlarged
the old Jewish cemetery of Prague by purchasing adjoining uncultivated
land, on which he erected a house for washing the dead, a mi?weh, a bet
ha-midrash, a Klaus, and a hospital (still in existence). He spent much
money also in ransoming Jewish prisoners; paved the ghetto ofPrague, which
had been much enlarged at that time; often provided clothing, of a uniform
pattern, for all the poor of his community; presented large dowries every
year at ?anukkah to two poor brides chosen by lot; lent large sums without
interest to needy merchants; and provided for the widows and orphans of
the community. He presented costly synagogal vessels and adornments to
other communities, including those of Cracow, Posen, and Jerusalem. He
presented and loaned altogether the sum of 20,000 thalers to the community
of Posen when it was burned out June 11, 1590; gave generously to Christian
philanthropies, contributing a considerable amount toward the completion
of the Church of the Savior; and repeatedly lent large sums to the empress
as well as to the emperor, being rewarded with considerable privileges,
many of which affected the Meisel synagogue. This synagogue had a standard
with an escutcheon; it might not be entered by any officer of the law;
it was exempt from taxation for all time. Although Meisel had no children,
the emperor granted him the right to dispose of his estate; but after
his death the heirs were involved in difficulties as a result of this
privilege. He had the right also to mint shekels for ritual purposes ("pidyon
ha-ben" and "ma?a?it ha-she?el"), and one of these coins,
dated 1584, is still in existence.Meisel's last will and testament, which
he drew up in the presence of Chief Rabbi Löw (Judah Löw b.
Bezaleel), the communal director Joachim Brandeis, and Meïr Epstein,
leaving his estate to his two nephews, Samuel the Elder and Samuel the
Younger, is still extant in manuscript. He was interred with the highest
honors. Immediately after his burial the Bohemian treasury, at the instance
of the emperor, confiscated his estate, consisting of 516,250 gulden in
money together with many houses. Whatever was found was carried off; one
of the chief heirs was tortured into revealing the hiding-place of what
had been concealed, which also was claimed. Meisel's wealth and philanthropy
have become proverbial among the Jews, and many anecdotes are connected
with his name.
Bibliography: Lieben, Gal 'Ed;
Foges, Altertümer der Prager Josefstadt;
Hock-Kaufmann, Die Familien Prags, Presburg, 1892;
A. Kisch, Das Testament Mardochai Meysels;
idem, Das Meiselbanner in Prag, Prague, 1901.D. A. Ki.
Manifest for Finland
Sailing from Antwerp March 01, 1904
0026. Meisel, Israel M 34y M Russia, Hebrew Horodok
going to brother ; Leib Meisel 4575 Eastford? Street,
025.Schulmann, Meische M 32y Married Russia, Hebrew painter Horodok going
to brother in law; Leib Meisel 4575 Eastford? Street, Brooklyn
Meisel, Sore Leie F 17y S dress maker Russia, Hebrew Krasne going to uncle
Epstein in New York
Waganschmi..., Izik M 30y M Russia, Hebrew Riken
0028. Fischbein, Heiser Leib M 31y M Russia, Hebrew carpenter Rikew
0029. Woloszynski, Moische M 26y S Russia, Hebrew Oschmerna tailor
November 29, 1905
Manifest for Statendam
Sailing from Rotterdam
Meisel, Dobe F 50 yr W Russia, Hebrew Haradok
With daughter in law; Meisel, Sossie F 20 yr Married Russia, Hebrew Haradok
0018. Meisel, Ytrek M 9 yr S Russia, Hebrew Haradok
0019. Meisel, Grisne F 11 mo S Russia, Hebrew Haradok
going to Dobe's son ; Yisrael Meiselis erased and another ? Meisel is
there on 406 Leonard Street in Brooklyn
going to Sosie husband; Yisrael Meisel in 201 Siegel? Street Brooklyn,
New York. with the two children.
Manifest for Finland
Sailing from Antwerp May 24, 1904
Meiser, Fsser M 43 Years old Married Russia, Hebrew from Goradak
carpenter going to son; H. Meisel 4861 Leonard Street Brooklyn
Sagalowitz, Fzak M 32 Y M Russia, Hebrew Gorodok going to brother in New
York
0017. Ladowsky, Rivke F 36 Y M Russia, Hebrew Gorodok
0018. Ladowsky, Feige F 11 Y S Russia, Hebrew Gorodok
0019. Ladowsky, Fukem M 9 Y S Russia, Hebrew Gorodok
0020. Ladowsky, Chana F 7 Y S Russia, Hebrew Gorodok
0021. Ladowsky, Leizer M 5 Y S Russia, Hebrew Gorodok
0022. Ladowsky, Feutel F 3 Y S Russia, Hebrew
0023. Ladowsky, Faukel F 6 M S Russia, Hebrew Gorodok
0024. Ladowsky, Perl F 29 Y M Russia, Hebrew Gorodok
0025. Ladowsky, Schinuel M 9 Y S Russia, Hebrew Gorodok
0026. Ladowsky, Morische M 7 Y S Russia, Hebrew Gorodok
0027. Ladowsky, Lore F 4 Y S Russia, Hebrew Gorodok
going to husband and father Ladowsky on Chanal Street in New York
Moshe Baran.
Moshe was born in 1919 in Horodok to Ester nee Weisbord from Volozhin
(born in 1902 and Yosef Baran who was so born in Horodok 1890 (His grandfather;
Avraham Pinchas was born in Oshmina grandmother; Riva Risha). Moshe's
parents met when his father attended the Volozhin Yeshiva and he had a
"Keset" (room and board) at the house of of the Weisbord family
in Volozhin.
Ester nee Weisbord had four sisters;
2. Shoshke married Yisrael Mayzel and lived in Horodok. At one point they
immigrated to the U. S and some of their children were born there. The
family returned to Horodok were the mother died. some of their children
went to Cuba and in 1950 went to Luisiana.the rest of the family perished
in Horodok